Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Analyzing YouTube Marketing

YouTube has become a household name. Everyone goes to YouTube to check out a TV episode missed, a video guide on how to cook a favorite dish, or just get laughs from one of the many funny viral videos saturating the worldwide web. It was only a matter of time before marketing teams started to exploit the massive popularity of this site.

Market analysts have had to adapt their strategies to really make a success on the Internet. The trick is to develop marketing campaigns that are cheaper, with wider appeal. A decade ago, an expensive TV ad may only be seen by a few thousands of Americans who are tuned into the same TV show, and today, billions of Internet users get to see ads on YouTube.

A second benefit of YouTube marketing is the amount of exposure you get. TV or radio ads are aired on a limited number of paid minutes, but an Internet ad is always there on cyberspace waiting to be viewed by anyone, anywhere and anytime of the day. Your only limitation is yourself.

Just how many people around the world visit YouTube? 60 million people a month access this site. That’s a huge market; so huge the thought of it was impossible just a few years ago.

If you ever wanted hard evidence of the popularity of YouTube, these numbers provide it. YouTube is currently sitting third, just behind Google and Facebook. These figures are sure to grow as more people buy cell phones with Internet connectivity, which allow them to watch YouTube from wherever they are.

One YouTube marketing strategy that really works is viral video advertising. The term viral video is now viral and not many people even now that it came from the word “virus”. If you consider the way a human virus operates, spreading and infecting people before they can prevent it, then you will understand how viral advertising works.

In some cases, the videos spread so quickly that they begin to appear under different names and searches. We have all seen those kinds of videos, be they funny or meaningful that seem to pop up everywhere. The idea is to be noticed and get passed around by as many viewers as possible, without stopping.

This type of marketing strategy is not really that new. Viral marketing is an extension of the simple word-of-mouth principle. Word-of-mouth happens when a product is so good that the user can’t help but tell people about it.

One cannot forecast which videos will go viral and which ones won't. Some videos that have gone viral on YouTube are simply silly and pointless. And conversely, some serious videos make it too.

The fact remains that predicting the spread of a video is almost impossible. You may choose to use YouTube tips, but these are no more accurate than you guessing. Regardless of all of this, you should still incorporate YouTube into your current marketing strategy.

If you need some ideas on how you get the most reliable youtube marketing, hit the link and you'll be there.